Nick Kyrgios offered a cold response to Australian Open rival Michael Venus, after he was branded a ‘k***’ by the New Zealander following their doubles quarter-final clash on Tuesday night.
Kyrgios and his fellow Aussie partner Thanasi Kokkinakis defeated Venus and Tim Pütz 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 however the Australian’s opponents were clearly unhappy following the match.
In an explicit post-match rant Venus described Kyrgios as a ‘k***’ and accused him of riling up the Melbourne crowd during their quarter-final clash.
The Kiwi commented: “The amount of messages I got from people, an extreme amount, way, way more than I've ever had…
“Then a lot of messages from people saying how embarrassed they were with the crowd's behaviour and they're sorry, it shouldn't have been like that.
"They'll always be his supporters and he'll spin it in a way that helps him but at the end of the day he's [Kyrgios] an absolute k**b.”
He even went on to compare the 26-year-old’s on-court maturity to that of a 10-year-old, adding: “On the maturity side, you see why he's never fulfilled his potential and probably never will.
“His maturity level, it's probably being generous to about a 10-year-old, it's at about that level.”
Venus’ brutal comments didn’t seem to hamper Kyrgios though, as he and Kokkinakis went on to claim victory in their semi-final clash with Horacio Zeballos and Marcel Granollers to book a place in Saturday’s final.
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Speaking after the impressive final four triumph, the bad boy Australian took the time to offer a response to Venus’ slamming, and offered a cold response.
He commented: “As to Michael Venus, I'm not going to destroy him in this media conference room right now.
“But Zeballos and Granollers are singles players. They've had great careers. I respect them a lot more than I respect Michael Venus.”
Kokkinakis also had his say on the remarks, insisting their efforts to spur up the Melbourne crowd are taken too seriously by their opponents.
He said: “I think for the most part it's not us trying to disrespect the opponents. It's us trying to get the crowd going to just increase the atmosphere.
“Sometimes the opponents take it personally. That's what happened with the Croatians that we played, the No. 1 seeds. That's obviously Michael took offence to that.”
Similar to his quarter-final clash with Venus and Pütz, Kyrgios was also orchestrating the home crowd up behind him throughout the final four match in Melbourne.
In typical Kyrgios fashion though there was still plenty of controversy after the Aussie still had time to flick the middle finger at the Melbourne faithful - who were for the most part behind him - after he could hear them talking during his serve.
The 26-year-old was also involved in an on-court argument with the umpire, as well as smashing his racket to the ground after a break of his serve.
The frustration soon turned to jubilation though, as Kokkinakis landed an impressive match-winning lob shot to spark wild scenes at the Rod Laver Arena.
